6th February 2006
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Schema Based Dictionaries
ProductWriter
r17.00 is an exciting release bringing the advantages of industry standard
messages into the hands of the product writer. An
insurer will be able to develop new products based on the XML schema
standards defined by Polaris. For
example, if an insurer wants to offer a Pubs and Restaurant product over the imarket
portal, they simply let ProductWriter produce a dictionary based on the XML
schemas already defined by Polaris for Pubs and Restaurants. With
the dictionary produced the product writer can use the traditional
ProductWriter tools to develop and test their product. The XML Run Time Environment will be able
to consume the request message generated from the imarket portal and
automatically produce the appropriate response. The
benefits of using schema based dictionaries include : • ProductWriter products are more closely
aligned with industry standard schemas • Reduced size of dictionary simplifies
product development • Product development is more consistent
between different lines of business • More flexibility for development of bespoke
products • No translation required between
dictionaries and standard XML messages • ProductWriter/RTE offers the easiest way
for insurers to integrate with imarket The
schemas currently published by Polaris include; Commercial combined,
Commercial motor fleet, Commercial vehicle, Hairdressing and beauty salons,
Office, Pubs restaurants and hotels, and Tradesman. Further
information for r17.00 changes will be found in the ProductWriter on-line
User Guide. This User Guide is distributed as part of the ProductWriter
release. The 'ProductWriter Overview' chapter of the Guide outlines the
release changes and provides a link to more detailed sections of the
document. |
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Effect on existing products and dictionaries
Existing
products are not affected by this release and will operate on the existing
dictionaries as they do now.
Traditional dictionaries (motor, household and commercial) will remain
the predominant mechanism used to define insurance products and the dictionaries
will continue to be developed and supported. The
look and feel of ProductWriter and the editors is largely unchanged and no
additional functionality is being offered at this release. As such, for business as usual there is no
overriding benefit in upgrading to r17.00 and we will not by default send
this release to all licensees.
However, we recommend that Insurers consider setting up a model office
to experiment with the new schema based dictionary functionality to identify
how best to make use of these facilities for your business. |
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Run Time Environment (RTE)
The
RTE will be updated with the changes required to support schema based
dictionaries. Advice on how to support
schema based dictionaries within an integration will
be provided with the release. r17.00 of the RTE will be backwards compatible with
schemes developed at r16.00. |
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Timeline
r17.00 Release The
new release of ProductWriter will be available on 28th February
2006. Skeleton Scheme Polaris
is considering developing a skeleton scheme based on a typical
request/response schema on the imarket portal. We expect that this would be available
approximately 2 months following the ProductWriter release. Schema based dictionary training We
are currently assessing demand for a special training course for developing
schema based products. Please contact
the service desk should you be interested in such a course. r17.10 Release Finally,
we are currently working on an update to the ProductWriter repository which
will allow users to replace the underlying Access database with a Microsoft
SQL server database. This mission
critical database will offer improved performance and reliability for larger
organisations and will be available as r17.10 approximately one month
following r17.00. |
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Contact us
For any questions please
contact the service desk on 0845 456 1956 or email Polaris_uk@logicacmg.com. |